Love Story
by Skylight Candytuft
Summary: It was hardly an unusual love story but if you asked them, it was the best.


**Disclaimer:**_ If I owned Naruto, its characters, and storyline…the Naruto-Hinata pairing_ will_ be a reality._

**Love Story**

_A Naruto and Hinata romance_

He would always remember the first time he asked her out. By that time, she was long past the stage of obsessive puppy love and moving on to more pressing matters. It bothered him to find she was no longer hovering within his periphery like a pale shadow twiddling with her fingers. He did not notice it at first until he felt an aching gap in his chest almost like the time Sasuke-teme nailed him with a Chidori.

He did not like it and being himself, took immediate measures to remedy and, err, patch up that hole.

He had approached her easily, desperately trying not to scare her off. Based on his limited encounters with her, any sudden movement caused the blood in her entire circulatory system to rush to her head and he did not want that. He didn't want to cause her discomfort. What he wanted was some time together, talk a little and laugh a little. Maybe he'd walk her home and kiss her goodnight if her clan would allow him.

He wanted a date although the thought was barely formed in his head.

So he chatted her up. _Casually_. So she wouldn't run off like a deer caught in the headlights. She smiled at him, nodded a few times, and laughed a little at his inane jokes.

And then asked him point blank what he was really trying to say.

Her blunt, softly spoken question floored him on the spot. This was a girl who couldn't string two words together without stumbling over them but here she was, calmly asking him why he was wasting her time — although the way she said it was _much_ nicer. She had always been nice to everyone, even when they weren't half as nice.

What he had, then, was a case of diarrhea of the mouth. In the end, he managed to wrangle the words out and asked her if she would have dinner with him sometime this year…within this month…this week, perhaps?

The shift in expressions on her face would have crushed him totally if he wasn't so used to rejection already. Her smiling serenity gave way to apologetic dismay when she told him that no, she was fully booked for the week.

He scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. It was worth a try, though, he thought. Maybe he could catch her at a better time although that seemed a little unlikely. Between his missions and her duties to her clan, there was so little time to be spent.

She apologized for the disappointment she had caused him and he told her it was no problem, really. She frowned a little at him and his heart stopped for a minute when her eyes looked straight _into_ him like a Yamanaka on the prowl. Then, a smiled teased the corner of her mouth when she suggested next week. If he was free?

His grin split his face wide open as he thanked Kami he had asked Tsunade-baachan for a two-week break instead of just one.

~ * ~

She would always remember their first date and the chaos that ensued prior to it.

Caught up in the business of clan matters, she had all but forgotten she had agreed to go to dinner with him until the very morning of the date itself. In her panic, she had thrown back the covers, run a brush through her hair, and barely had time to wash herself before presenting herself at breakfast.

Her father, so used to his eldest daughter looking presentable at breakfast, cocked an eyebrow at her frazzled appearance. Her younger sister managed a smirk behind her tea.

"I won't be able to attend to clan matters today," she had apologized to him, steeling herself against the blow of his disappointment. It was something she never got used to.

In the end, her father was more in shock than in a state of disappointment and her sister, Demon Child as she was, actually volunteered to accompany her for the preparations she was to make. Having built her life around training, missions, and the clan, she had no appropriate things to wear for a date.

Hanabi just smirked and helped her pick out three outfits and several pairs of shoes. Her explanation? She had a feeling her older sister would be doing it a lot more often. The dating thing.

That night, he arrived at precisely eight just as she was putting the finishing touches to her make up and because of that, it was the Welcoming Committee who rolled out the welcome mat for him.

Neji-niisan was none too happy that she was going out on a date with someone who had ignored her for almost ten years. Her father was none too happy she was going out on a date, period. Between the two of them, they emphasized to the blond-haired ninja precisely what they were going to do to him if anything untoward happened to their clan heiress, these warnings including — but not limited to — disembowelment, dismemberment, and total annihilation in very uncomfortable places.

For his part, he held his ground and promised he would behave in an appropriate manner. At that point, she burst out into the receiving area and he looked just about ready to burst into tears.

She did not miss the way his eyes lit up in silent reverence, though.

They were on the way to a ritzy part of the district when she felt awkward and ill at ease. He claimed he had reserved a table for them at one of the fancier restaurants but she shook her head and dragged him to his favorite place on earth for a bowl of steaming hot ramen instead.

His expression at her suggestion was one reserved for feats of magic.

After dinner, they took off their shoes and soaked their feet in the lake while the small fish nibbled on their toes as they talked. She had never been much of a talker herself, preferring listening to talking, but there was something about him that made her put her two cents in every once in a while. He had a way about him that pulled everything else into his universe like a powerful, charismatic whirlpool.

They talked about many things — of his dream of becoming Hokage someday, of her plans for the clan once she assumed her position as its head. Big things and little things and all the other things in between.

It was almost midnight when they walked back home and he dropped a chaste goodnight kiss on her cheek. When she turned her head and caught his lips on her own, she swore she could feel at least two pairs of Byakugan fire up behind the walls. How she managed that amazing stunt was something she would never know.

~ * ~

So much had happened since that night and Uzumaki Naruto could confidently say that he was so in love with Hyuuga Hinata he would kill for her. While it was hardly arguable that Naruto was one of the best in the field, it was so much more different when he had something worth fighting for. When he was fighting to protect his precious people, the blond ninja was good; when he was protecting Hinata, he was downright lethal.

Although she was more than capable of defending herself, he would never forgive himself if anything happened to her. The thought of anyone hurting her was enough to send a wave of bloodlust rushing through his veins.

He caught the faint scent of lavender and mint and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. Even her scent was all it took to calm his wired senses.

"Hey." He closed his hand on hers and pulled her to him, thanking Kami that she had given him that one chance despite his idiotic pursuit of one Haruno Sakura in the earlier days. If only he had realized just how precious Hinata was back then, he would have dated her before they hit puberty.

Her shoulders shook in smothered laughter. "I can tell what you're thinking of."

"Hime, you can't possibly _conceive_ what I'm thinking of right now," he grinned lewdly.

"Baka," she swatted playfully at his arm before settling in his embrace once more. "I missed you. And I was so worried when they told me you would be delayed. I started to assume the worst…"

There was a time in the past when she could not have considered calling him an idiot to his face but time and the Uzumaki brashness had given Hinata a mature confidence that lent her subtle manner a certain playfulness and in clan meetings, a steel backbone that could bend just as easily as it could stiffen.

He kissed the top of her head and prayed she wouldn't notice him shaking to his sandals. "You know nothing would keep me from coming back to you, hime."

"What took you so long?" her voice was muffled against his vest.

He smiled and showed her that thing in his pocket he had been fiddling with while he waited for her to arrive.

"I only wanted the very best for my hime," he explained, bringing the ring to the light. The diamond twinkled in the sunlight. In a way, it was like him. In the dark, he was just another rock. Brought out and basking in the sunshine of her love, he was a diamond.

"Marry me?"

As the tears trickled down her face and her answer — "Yes! Yes! A thousand times, _yes_!" — was muffled in his chest again, Uzumaki Naruto counted himself a very blessed man indeed.

~ END ~

**Author's Note: **I sincerely apologize for the EXTREME delay in updating _A Marriage of Inconvenience_. Rest assured, I have been working on it and I fully intend to finish it. Just as soon as I find the time to sit down, take a deep breath, and write…


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